Random snippets from the last week

Found a great frame at the tip which will be perfect for frost or shade protection, and admired the red giant mustard and darwin lettuce

Finished mulching the permablitz garden paths - those cornflowers are about ready to come out.

Made shadecloth covers for the 2 potato beds in case we get frost in the next few weeks, plus admired the peas and heartsease..oh and the garlic!

Jerry making time for a belly rub......

And this week I also decided that a career as an arbourist is NOT for me....this is why:

Yes, that is a chainsaw dangling from his belt as he's hanging about up in the tree!

Mulch is good....free mulch is better

I'm so tired I can hardly type! This weekend was the first of two free green waste weekends at our local tip. As it normally costs us $10-15 per trailer (DON'T get me started on that...) this is an opportunity too good to pass up, particularly with fire season just around the corner. So we've been tidying and raking and trailering almost all weekend. That's a lot of effort for two fundamentally lazy people!

As well as free green waste they have free mulch. It's not good enough to use on the garden, but perfect for in between the garden beds and the fruit cage. We've shovelled another 5 trailer loads this weekend and finished the fruit cage...and started on the permablitz garden. As you can see from the image below (taken almost at ground level) it's a nice thick layer...

 

 

I also planted some irises in a hole left by one of the citrus we moved a few weeks ago, and in the other citrus hole I planted some green rhubarb that I traded for some red rhubarb with someone at Jerry's work.

 

I did take a moment to admire the signs of spring in the garden..bluebells, and leaves appearing on the fig tree.

And there are potatoes shooting, and the bay tree looks happy in it's new pot

Finally, it was time to pick some veg for dinner. White carrots in the front, with beetroot and parsnip, and purple sprouting broccoli and mint in the basket. Perfect with a rack of lamb (farm grown farm killed) roast and gravy.

Shrug it off...

or on rather!  I've finally finished my first knitted garment!  OK so it's a mini-garment - just a fairly simple shrug, but it fits and you can't see the few mistakes I've made so it's all good as far as I'm concerned :)

 

Suddenly I see a whole new possibility in sleeveless dresses knowing I can whip one of these up to make myself some pretty sleeves! In fact I'm off to find a pattern for a lighterweight one for summer to make up in  some lovely varigated mossy green bamboo cotton I got at the wool mill discount store.........................

Long weekend lycra

Jerry works in NSW and it's a long weeked there so he has the day off. As the morning dawned sunny for the first time in days that meant just one thing - get on the lycra and get on your bike boy! Although there was just time to catch a bit of football before heading off

 

The pigs had to follow to see what was going on....but the dogs were left wondering at the gate.

And it's off up the hill into town you go young man......

It's been a good weekend

The main thing is that we're still getting rain  - VERY exciting and we're 90mm up on last year's total with 3 months to go. Of course we'll still be about 300mm below our "normal" average, but every improvement on last year is a bonus! The other bonus is that summer time started on Sunday so it's going to be lighter later, so we can get more done outdoors during the week.

So in between the rain we've been working in the garden. On a trip to the tip on Saturday afternoon we discovered they were offering free mulch, so that made us change plans a bit and weed and strim the fenceline and pull up the carpet in the fruit cage and start replacing it with a thick layer of mulch. We're planning to line the whole fenceline with corrugated iron (from the tip of course!) to help with weed control.

 

Whist we're talking about the fruit cage, it's exciting to see flower buds forming on the brambleberries, raspberries and red and blackcurrants. Jerry also found time to line the brambleberry row with some spare pavers.

I also planted out the 2 new lemon trees so our new mini-citrus grove is complete. When they grow a bit they will provide a bit of a screen for the sheds. We also made a mini-shelter for the chook run to give them somewhere nice to sit. All out of materials recycled from the tip, of course!

I have no idea what's for dinner tonight, but here's a look at Saturday Night Pizza - ham, roasted red pepper, chilli bbq sauce, leek, mushroom and capricosa cheese.